B&O Beoplay P2

Does the P2 live up to the B&O luxury name?

$169 Manufacturer B&O Play, beoplay.com Features 10-hour play time, two-hour charging time, Bluetooth 4.2, USB-C port, USB-C to USB-A cable included

The Beoplay P2 is a little different from other Bluetooth speakers. Not only does it offer seriously good performance for such a small package, but it blurs the line between “smart” and “dumb” speakers with its gesture and voice controls.

It’s a lot smaller than you might expect, at only 5.5 x 3.2 x 1.1 inches and 9.7 oz, and comes in three colors: black, beige, and blue. Setting up is pretty easy. We recommend downloading the Beoplay app, which guides you along and offers tips on how to use the speaker. The app also provides a battery life indicator, as well as firmware updates.

When you take the speaker out of the box, you may notice that it’s missing something most other Bluetooth speakers have: controls. In reality, they’re hidden. The power button is located under the logo on the bottom of the speaker, while playback controls are shifted from physical buttons to gesture or voice controls.

To play or pause your music, you simply double-tap the speaker grill. You can also use that double-tap gesture to control your digital assistant – which you can then use to control your music. For example, when we set it up, double-tapping activated Siri, which we could then ask to play a playlist, skip to the next song, and so on. It’s a cool feature, and is a good way for B&O to try to tap into the smart speaker craze without having to develop an assistant of its own.

Inside the P2 there’s a single tweeter and a midrange driver, which put out mono audio. That’s not necessarily a bad thing – such a small speaker probably wouldn’t sound very stereophonic even if it did have two tweeters. You may also be surprised by the bass on offer here; it’s relatively thick and powerful, and while some may prefer a little more sub-bass content than such a small speaker can typically offer, the bass doesn’t hold back. The midrange is well-tuned too, offering a good amount of low mids and a slight dip in the upper-mid area. The sound is quite rich and warm, which we really enjoyed.

B&O claims the speaker will last for 10 hours of playing time, and that was in the ballpark according to our tests, but results will vary depending on how loudly you’re listening to your music.

The bottom line. The Beoplay P2 is an excellent compromise on size and sound quality. In fact, for this size we would argue that you can’t get much better. Christian de Looper